Gov. Mark Sanford may be a hardhead when it comes to spending state money on economic development. But he's our hardhead, and that attribute certainly doesn't make him one of the nation's worst governors, as Time magazine asserted this week.

Time's disapprobation for Sanford appeared to be grounded in his distaste for spending copious sums of public money to lure employers (and tourists) to the state, and in the frustration that his attitude has elicited in S.C. politicians and some business leaders. But Sanford's view that lowering taxes to improve the S.C. business climate is a better approach to economic development isn't necessarily wrong. Moreover, the blame for the lower bond rating that Standard & Poor's visited upon South Carolina this year, also cited in Time's condemnatory blurb, falls upon the General Assembly, not Sanford. Legislators spend the money and make the budget - often over Sanford's dead body.

The good news for Sanford: There's no shame in running afoul of a national publication that fires off journalistic cheap shots grounded in a warped and hazy grasp of the facts.